Point Breeze updated site plan is revealed
Neighbors sound off
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Point Breeze Hotel owner Bob Matthews and his team of engineers and attorneys presented the latest revisions for phase two of the Point Breeze Hotel at a special meeting of the Planning Board on April 3.

ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent Point Breeze Hotel owner Bob Matthews on the Easton Street job site earlier this month

Matthews' island attorney, Sarah Alger, told the board that the proposed 34,000-square-foot Maidstone, the main building in the new hotel plans, had been cut down to 17,235 square feet. She also said the number of tennis courts were reduced from three to two and underground parking shrunk from 149 to 101 spaces.

The Historic District Commission, she told the board, is reviewing the application and that a notice of intent is being put together to file with the Conservation Commission.

Alger also said, and town engineer Ed Pesce later confirmed, that Matthews' local engineer, Dale McKinnon of Nantucket Surveyors, had designed a stormwater collection and construction site dewatering system that would please the board and the hotel's neighbors.

"So, we have made significant site changes and reduced the size and scope of the hotel," Alger told the board. "The property could be fairly intensely developed as a matter of right with 15 dwellings, considering wetlands, with 15 curb cuts along Easton Street."

Much of the night's presentation and discussion centered on the ballyhooed construction site dewatering plan and permanent stormwater drainage system designed by McKinnon. Pesce said that with a few, easily made revisions, the plan would work.

"The current design is of sufficient status that I could endorse it and see you moving forward given the revisions," said Pesce. "I am not of the opinion, after a rereading of this, that there are any problems. It is, again, a major undertaking."

As currently detailed in McKinnon's design, rainwater from several of the phase two building roofs will be collected, filtered and discharged into a wetland on Easton Street. An overflow catch basin installed nearby will channel any overflow into the upper of two proposed underground holding tanks. Rainwater collected from the tennis courts, a cabana, the parking garage and other roof drains will flow by gravity to a system of gravel-filled wells that are designed to allow water to percolate into the ground. Any overflow will be pumped into the lower holding tank. Rainwater runoff from the parking garage's driveway will also flow directly to the lower tank.

When the contents of the upper and lower tanks reaches a certain level, it will be pumped through pipes heading east on Easton Street, down South Beach Street to Harborview Way and eventually connect with a 48-inch outfall pipe on the Nantucket Yacht Club side of Children's Beach. The lower tank will also be connected to the town's stormwater drainpipe on Easton Street so that during heavy rains it could collect that water as well, helping to reduce street flooding.

Should Matthews secure all his permits to build phase two by the fall, when the town is scheduled to begin upgrades to its downtown stormwater collection system, he would be able to lay pipe and connect to the town's new Children's Beach outfall pipe when the town opens the streets for the project.

Until the concrete of the underground garage is poured, cured and set during construction of phase two, steel sheeting driven 19 feet into the ground will contain water on the site. Collection wells placed around the property at a depth of 23 feet will keep the site dry by pumping water through a filtration system and into the harbor via outflow pipes at Children's Beach.

The steel sheeting installation would begin Nov. 1, with work suspended during Christmas Stroll, added Pesce.

After the drainage discussion, including fears that the sheeting would be driven by pile drivers - McKinnon said vibrating drivers will be used instead - neighbors peppered Alger and the board with questions and requests. These included concerns about hours of operation, lighting and delivery vehicles using North Avenue, where residents Tom and Sarah Liddle and Betsy Adler are concerned about water running down both sides of their road and about golf cart back up beepers.

McKinnon said that the drainage system will keep water off the road. Alger said all deliveries will be to one location and golf carts only used to distribute various items around the property.

Before continuing the hearing to its April 14 meeting, the board asked that Alger and Matthews' engineers find out if the golf carts will have back up beepers; that workers on the current phase of the project communicate better with neighbors; that all employees get shuttle bus passes; that information on the Point Breeze Web site tells guests not to bring vehicles; and that Alger provide hours of operation for all activities

at the hotel and a management plan for it. I